Human rights are said to be possessed equally by everyone. A corollary of this claim is that everyone has a duty to protect and promote the human rights of everyone else.
They can be enjoyed only when there are suitable social, cultural, economic and political conditions within the state and outside.
But most of the Third World states do not have structures and resources to provide and maintain those conditions. In practice, thus, the onus of for securing human rights falls upon national governments and international and inter-governmental bodies.
The moral burden for securing human rights, under these circumstances, falls disproportionately upon these institutions precisely because only some of them are best placed and most able to perform that task effectively. Non-governmental organisations and MNCs also have an important role to play.
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But the primary burden falls on relevant national and international institutions: the governments of the nation-states and the UN and the World Bank. Global inequalities in the distribution and possession of wealth undermine the ability of the poorer counties to grant these human rights to their people.
Both nation-states and their legal set-up and cooperation of nation-states within international institutions require securing the requisite global conditions for the protection and promotion of everyone’s human rights. Without this kind of arrangement, the UN or the politically active rich nations, international agencies like IMF and the World Bank cannot expect the poorer nations to implement the human rights.
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Even the ‘minimal levels of decent and respectful treatment’ cannot be a matter left to national governments. The problem is not limited to national boundaries. The more affluent and powerful nation-states should provide sufficient assistance to the countries incapable of adequately ensuring the protection of their citizens’ basic human rights.
Only then all individuals can be treated in an equal and like fashion in respect of provision of fundamental human rights. Thus, the problem of protection and enforcement of human rights at the national and international levels requires serious attention of the scholars and leaders.